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What's funny about this is that the YCombinator application actually asks you how many lines of code your app is. I took the question as a chance to rant about
by odbol 13y ago
What's funny about this is that the YCombinator application actually asks you how many lines of code your app is. I took the question as a chance to rant about the irony of a software accelerator geared on making you an "software expert" asking this question.
- gpolak 13y agoI seriously doubt they "rank" applications by KLOC, they just want to see if you have enough for a decent demo/prototype. Something that shows some implementation effort. And I suspect there's nothing wrong with zero if it makes sense in the context of that particular application.
- stanmancan 13y agoWhy would you rant about this? You don't know what they're even looking for in an answer. How many LOC there are in your app is relevant but doesn't necessarily mean it's going to effect your application in any way. I think the history of some of the groups accepted speaks to this.
- odbol 13y agoI figured it was a trick question. My rant was still very informative about our product - we have a working app on 4 platforms (which share codebases to reduce amount of code written) and demo videos so I don't think I really needed to justify it with a number. My philosophy was that a developer should be judged on how few lines of code they take to make a working product, not how many.
- tlrobinson 13y agoIf you've written 0 LOC for your revolutionary artificial intelligence system, or 1,000,000 LOC for your "Instagram for Squirrels" app, I'm likely to be equally suspicious. Otherwise there's a wide range of acceptable answers for that question. A rant probably isn't one of them.
- marcosdumay 13y agoThe "problem size"/"program size" ratio is very informative.
- Demiurge 13y agoWhy is it ironic? Lines of code is a good estimate of complexity. The point of the article is that increase in complexity is not a good estimate of progress.